RSS
Healthcare: Half of pharmacies operating in Romania may close down next year
Half of the pharmacies may close down next year if medicine prices drop very much and that will not be in harmony with the clawback tax, said the president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Distributors and Retailers in Romania (ADRFR), Robert Popescu, at the Mediafax conference.
He declared at the conference Mediafax Talks about Health Reform that ensuring in Romania the lowest European price for medicines, which is then affected by the clawback tax, is a mechanism which cannot bring economic health to operators in the pharmaceutical industry, international or local producers, distributors of drug stores.
Popescu mentioned that the overal profitability level for distribution is around 1.5-1.7% compared to the business figure, which is according to the level practicable in Europe.
It is no secret that we have talks referring to amending added structures allowed by the Health Ministry for distribution and pharmaceutical retail. Otherwise next year we will have less than half of pharmacies operating in Romania today., said the president of ADRFR.
He explained that all those possible bankruptcies would mean money losses in the system, which should be covered by others from profit.
Health minister Nicolae Banicioiu announced that as of July 1 Romania will have the lowest European price for medicines and talks had been carries out with EC, IMF, producers and distributors.